HOV at the NDP Convention (Canada)
- 19 September 2006
The first event was held
at 8:00am on Friday the 8th. Despite how early the meeting was, almost
40 people attended the meeting. Luis Granados presented the event and
gave a history of the Venezuela revolution. Julian Benson spoke on Oil
nationalization and the benefits of a planned economy. Phil Goebel
spoke on workers control and how it can be an alternative to
capitalism. The event was well received and many insightful questions
were asked.
The second event was held at 6:00pm on the 8th
and was co-hosted together with the Socialist Caucus. The event
featured the Consulate of Venezuela and Cuba and featured a special
guest (that even we were unaware of), a member of the national assembly
of Venezuela! Unfortunately, there were many other events going on at
the same time and the main convention ran on longer then scheduled so
the turnout wasn't as large as the event deserved. However the member
of the national assembly showed a lot of interest in the Hands off
Venezuela table.
Support for Venezuela is strong and growing in the NDP. Six different
pro-Venezuela resolutions were submitted to the Convention and hundreds
of delegates proudly wore "Hands Off Venezuela" stickers supplied by
HOV activists. Unfortunately, none of the Venezuela resolutions made it
to the floor of Convention due to the short amount of time being taken
up with the debate over "Troops Out" of Afghanistan. The NDP has now
adopted the position Chavez proposed back in 2001!
The HOV
info table was very successful and even became an unofficial hang-out
spot for the NDP youth. The New Democratic Youth of Canada passed a
resolution in support of HOV and were so enthusiastic about the
campaign that they even protested the fact that youth sponsored
resolutions such as HOV did not reach the floor for debate. NDP Leader
Jack Layton has also expressed interest in visiting Hugo Chavez. All
in all, the weekend was very important for Hands off Venezuela and the
international solidarity movement.
Adam Fulsom
Hands off Venezuela
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